Tag: Western Albemarle High School

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Arts Culture

Pick: A Most Beautiful Thing

Arshay Cooper discusses and screens his film A Most Beautiful Thing. Photo: Richard Schultz. Courtesy 50 Eggs Films

Oar stories: During the ’90s on Chicago’s West Side, Arshay Cooper became captain of the first all-Black high school rowing team, an experience he claims saved his life. A Most Beautiful Thing, the humorous and inspiring documentary based on Cooper’s award-winning memoir of the same name, chronicles the team’s journey and a reunion 20 years later. Cooper will be joined by Olympian Jim Dietz, UVA’s rowing director Frank Biller, and local crew coach Craig Redinger for a discussion before a screening of the film.

Wednesday 10/27. Free, 6:30pm. Western Albemarle High School, 5941 Rockfish Gap Tpke., Crozet. 823-8700.

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Coronavirus News

Class dismissed: School closings intensify equity issues

Jack Jouett teacher Heather Dow sits in her car outside the middle school to utilize the public WiFi. Dow lives in Greene County, and does not have a fast enough internet connection to take Zoom calls for work. PC: Zack Wajsgras

With Virginia’s K-12 schools shuttered for the remainder of the academic year, our city and county districts have moved into uncharted territory: figuring out not only how to teach thousands of students outside of the classroom, but also making distance learning accessible and equitable for all.

The districts say they are still developing formal distance learning programs, which will be rolled out after spring break, on April 13. In the meantime, some teachers in both the city and county have provided students with optional online modules and activities, reviewing previously taught material. Educators have also been using video conference services like Zoom and Google Hangouts to bring kids together.

Accessing these resources, however, is more difficult for some than others. Up to 30 percent of Albemarle County Public Schools students don’t have adequate access to the internet at home. And while Charlottesville City Schools do not have division-wide data on students’ internet access, its most recent CHS student survey indicated that 6 percent of households have no internet.

To bridge this digital divide, ACPS has boosted the WiFi signal at all of its schools, as well the Yancey School Community Center, allowing anyone to get onto the internet from parking lots. Several hundred cars have already been spotted taking advantage of this crucial resource, according to ACPS spokesman Phil Giaramita.

ACPS has also leased part of its broadband spectrum to Shentel, enabling the company to expand internet to more rural, underserved households in the area. With the lease revenue, it’s ordered about 100 Kajeet Smart Spots, which are “devices you can install in your house that will access the network of local carriers in your area,” explains Giaramita. Once they’re delivered, “we’re going to start distributing those to teachers [and students] who don’t have internet access at home,” and will order more as needed.

In the city, CCS recommends that students who have inadequate internet access connect to an AT&T or Xfinity hot spot, as both companies have recently opened up all of their U.S. hot spots to non-customers. The district is also distributing hot spots to students who are unable to use those publicly available.

Both city and county school districts are giving laptops to students in grades two and up who need them. ACPS also plans to distribute iPads to kindergarteners through second graders.

At CCS, learning guides are available online for pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students with suggested activities that do not require access to the internet.

Despite these efforts, CHS senior Jack Dreesen-Higginbotham remains concerned about the city’s transition to distance learning. “I know they’ve been working on trying to set up hot spots for students, but I don’t know if it will be accessible to everybody. And [still], not everyone has a school-provided laptop,” he says. “My brother, who is in sixth grade, wasn’t provided one, so he’s had to use mine to do his work.”

However, Dreesen-Higginbotham’s CHS teachers, who currently use Zoom, are doing a “very good job at instructing their classes and organizing lessons, so that they can be inclusive to everybody,” he says.

After spring break, both CCS and ACPS will provide more formal online—and offline—academic instruction and enrichment for each grade level.

“We’re looking at finding specific solutions for individual families, whether online, offline, or a combination,” says CCS spokeswoman Beth Cheuk.

“Offline could simply mean working with kids by telephone, by regular mail. We’ve asked teachers to be creative, so that there isn’t any student who is disadvantaged by their access to technology,” adds Giaramita.

While students will learn new material through distance learning, there will be no grading (or SOLs). Instead, teachers will provide feedback on a regular basis.

To former CHS teacher Margaret Thornton, now a Ph.D. candidate in educational leadership at UVA, this is an opportunity for local schools to explore different types of evaluation systems.

“I hope that we can make lemonade out of these lemons, and re-evaluate a lot of our policies—grading is certainly one of them,” she says.

“We’ve [also] known for a long time that our standardized testing system has created a lot of inequality,” Thornton adds. “We can be rethinking assessments at this time, and how we can make it more formative and more useful in instruction.”

Both school divisions want to ensure that as many students as possible graduate or are promoted to the next grade level. Per guidance from the Virginia Department of Education, students who were on track to pass before schools closed will do so. But on April 6, ACPS announced that if distance learning is not “the best fit” for a student, they will have the option to complete the school year by attending classes in July, or (excluding seniors) during the next school year.

While ACPS’ lesson plans will not go into effect until April 13, Giaramita says one of its distance-learning initiatives has already been implemented: Check and Connect. Students will now be contacted at least once a week by a teacher, counselor, administrator, or principal to talk about their distance learning experience, what assistance they need, and what their internet access is like. So that no student is left out, this contact can take place by phone, email, video call, or even snail mail.

CCS has also asked teachers to connect with each of their students to identify which ones need additional support, regarding WiFi or other issues.

Such practices may be particularly beneficial to those who do not have parents at home to help and support them throughout the day.

“So many service workers are being considered essential, and are doing essential work. But that means often that their kids are going to be home alone without adult interaction,” Thornton says. “The relationships between teachers and students are [going to be] key.”

Other teachers, parents, and community members have expressed similar concerns for students with limited access to adult instruction and interaction, such as those from refugee or ESOL families. And with a significant amount of students without adequate internet access, some fear students won’t be prepared for the next school year.

“It is really hard to live in the county and not have reliable [internet] access. We don’t even have cellular service so we can’t utilize a hot spot,” says Jessiah Mansfield, who has a senior at Western Albemarle High School. “If we need something important, we have to go to Charlottesville to download it. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones with this issue, but it will impact our children.”

However, others remain hopeful that teachers will be able to help their students make it through the rest of the semester.

“As the crisis continues and escalates, so does anxiety for all. Learning should be suggested. Remember we are at home trying to work not working from home. Connecting with my students is just as important for them as it is for me,” says Libby Nicholson, a fourth-grade teacher at Broadus Wood Elementary School. “We are in this together! We got this!”

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News

Side effects: Cell tower emissions at Western still issue for some

Western Albemarle High’s Blue Ridge views won’t be too impacted by an 80-foot cell tower, but some are more worried about health risks than the aesthetics. (File Photo)

By Caroline Eastham

Aesthetics seemed to have gotten more discussion than health risks when Albemarle County approved a cell tower at Western Albemarle High last fall. The tower will provide sorely needed cell service to Crozet and internet access to over 400 homes and businesses, yet some say the health risks outweigh the connectivity benefit.

There’s plenty of research about the harmful effects that the community needs to know about, says Barbara Cruickshank, a retired nurse.

“You don’t need to have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering or biochemistry,” she says. “The science is overwhelming that human health is being negatively impacted by the radiation that they are being exposed to.”

Theodora Scarato, executive director of the Environmental Health Trust, says hundreds of studies document adverse effects from radiation from cell towers, even at very low levels. “Scientists say the current evidence is that radiofrequency radiation meets criteria to be a human carcinogen,” she says.

When the Albemarle Board of Supervisors voted for the tower at Western Albemarle in September, the board addressed community concerns about the aesthetics of a 145-foot tower by limiting the height to 80 feet.

Supervisor Ann Mallek was in the minority. “Having 3,000 children bathing in the emissions from the tower did not seem like the right thing to do,” she says.

Even a small risk was enough for Albemarle County School Board member David Oberg to oppose the tower. “What we do in our peculiar positions impacts our kids,” says the attorney. “I wouldn’t put my child at risk. I can’t put other children at risk. My colleagues don’t agree with the risk.”

Supervisor Rick Randolph voted in support of the WAHS tower because it would fill in gaps in cell coverage in the locality. “It’s completely safe according to the physics, and certainly the federal government has not deemed the towers to be a risk to public health and safety,” he says.

The current lack of service widens the equal educational opportunity gap, says Albemarle schools spokesman Phil Giaramita. “Cell towers that meet federal safety and environmental standards can narrow this gap by improving the availability, quality, and reliability of school and community access.”

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 says essentially that safety concerns about the close proximity of the towers cannot be used to prevent them from being built.

Mallek claims this law is dated and impacts the ability of local government to provide for the health and safety of its citizens, “which is what our number one charter job is.”

She was the only opposing voted in 2016, too, when the construction of the Albemarle High School cell tower was approved.

Both towers are part of a partnership with Milestone Communications, which grants the schools $25,000 per pole and an additional $5,000 for each carrier that sets up service on the pole. Revenue from the towers will go to the school system’s general fund.

Proponents say the towers increase safety in emergency situations. The Emergency Communications Center falls in the gap of coverage that the cell towers could fill, says Randolph.

Oberg can see the argument for extending internet access to students who don’t otherwise have it. “It’s not wrong, but for me it is not a significant enough benefit.”

Opponents claim that near similar access can be obtained with safe-use techniques for technology. “We can do everything that we want to do safely because technology is not inherently bad. Technology has helped us enormously, but it has to be safe,” says Cruickshank.

The Environmental Health Trust is not a fan of wireless, and recommends corded or wired connections to reduce overall radiation exposure. “Most of the time, the internet needs of the school are met by internal networks, not by the cell tower,” says Scarato. Wired connections are also faster, she says.

Choosing not to retrofit the school properly neglects a potential compromise that would provide more access with fewer emissions, says Mallek. “We have every capability to do this in the fiber. We can do it right and I’m very much in favor of doing it right and putting the fiber in where it needs to go.”

No timeline has been set for breaking ground.

Clarification July 15 on Theodora Scarato’s comments about scientific evidence on radiofrequency radiation.

Correction August 20: Barbara Cruickshank was never employed by Albemarle County schools.

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News

Hate-free hats: Student challenges county schools’ new policy on first day

A student who challenged Albemarle Superintendent Matt Haas’ new interpretation of the dress code was sent home after refusing to remove a hat with Confederate imagery.

Just hours after Albemarle County Public Schools’ new interpretation of its dress code went into effect on March 12, a Western Albemarle High student was sent to the principal’s office. He had refused to remove a hat bearing the Confederate insignia.

ACPS Superintendent Matt Haas had emailed parents the previous day to announce a ban on the “wearing of clothing associated with organizations that promote white supremacy, racial division, hatred, or violence,” making clear that included Confederate imagery and the Nazi swastika.

Schools spokesperson Phil Giaramita stresses that the dress code itself has not changed. “It’s the same policy, which does not specify content and is viewpoint neutral,” he says. “But it does say that clothing that becomes disruptive to the learning environment is not permitted.”

While revising the dress code requires approval from the school board, Haas maintains he may interpret the policy within reasonable bounds. At the Albemarle County School Board’s February 14 meeting, he informally declared his intention to bar Confederate imagery on clothing, using the harm and disruption standard of the county’s current dress code.

Shortly before the meeting, the School Health Advisory Board issued a report concluding that the presence of Confederate imagery would likely impact the ability of students of color to learn and feel safe at school. Haas and school board members David Oberg and Katrina Callsen invoked the report when explaining their support for a ban.

Teachers and administrators have been instructed to respond to violations by notifying the principal, who will call students to the front office and inform them that their clothing is prohibited. Students may not return to class until they have removed or inverted their attire.

At Western Albemarle last week, the student’s father opted to check him out of school.

According to Giaramita, enforcement is not geared toward discipline. For this to work, “it needs to be an act of education or counseling,” he says. “But if a student refuses and continues to show up with the imagery on clothing, it becomes an act of defiance.”

Acts of defiance are punishable by suspension, enforced homeschool, or expulsion, though Giaramita says expulsion is unlikely. (The student is now back in school.)

The new interpretation exempts imagery that has an educational purpose, such as in textbooks and historical films. Notably, the drama department at Western performed The Sound of Music, complete with swastikas and students playing SS guards, that same week. “It’s a matter of context,” says Giaramita, adding that the drama director brought in a history teacher to talk to students about World War II, the German takeover of Austria, and the Nazi regime.

Free speech has figured prominently in the debate over Confederate imagery in schools. Several members of the school board have questioned the legality of a ban, citing an infamous case in 2002, in which Alan Newsom sued after he was forced to wear his NRA T-shirt inside out at Jack Jouett Middle School.

When asked about the new interpretation, his father, Fred Newsom, says he thought that issue had been settled with Alan’s lawsuit. “If only popular speech is protected, there’s really no right of free speech,” he says. “It comes down to if there’s a disruption. I can understand the motivation to try to avoid a disruption.”

ACPS legal counsel Ross Holden advised Haas that the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld bans of disruptive clothing if the dress code itself is content neutral, says Giaramita.

The Albemarle County School Board is scheduled to discuss hateful imagery on clothing at its April 11 meeting.

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News

In brief: Taking back their streets, Cockburn controversy, Cantwell returns and more

Skyclad AP.com

Calming effect

“That’s the reason we did this—people fly down the street,” says Shawnee West as she watches a car drive through the intersection of Little High and 11th streets.

West is standing at the edge of the circular traffic-calming mural she designed with the help of one of her neighbors. Last fall, West and dozens of her neighbors painted the geometric eight-petal blue flower with pink-and-white butterflies surrounding it. The color scheme was inspired by the mural on the adjacent Charlottesville Day School. Some of the children who helped signed their names along one of the outer rings.

West, who spent about a month gathering signatures from neighbors for a project petition she then submitted to the city, says this intersection is a particularly dangerous one because it’s a main thoroughfare for both city and school buses, but is only a two-way stop. Neighbors asked for four stop signs but were denied. She says they’ve also tried to garner enough support to petition for speed bumps on both Little High and East Jefferson streets.

“Of course we dread the worst thing that could happen,” she says. “People wait until there’s a serious crisis before anyone does anything and we’re trying to prevent that.”

West and her fellow Little High residents will give the mural a second coat of paint in May, to ensure their efforts have a lasting effect.

“When you do something, people want to help, they want to be part of something,” she says. “And to be part of a community of people who say, ‘What can I do?’—it’s great.”

“Local news comment sections prove that SATAN IS REAL, Y’ALL.”—Congregate C’ville’s Brittany Caine-Conley on Twitter in response to the web comments on C-VILLE’s story, “Still here: White supremacy strikes again.”

Dem caucusers

Localities in the 5th District held caucuses last week that gave Leslie Cockburn enough delegates to secure the nomination at its convention in Farmville May 5 to challenge Representative Tom Garrett in November, according to an unofficial tally.

Leslie Cockburn at the Charlottesville Democratic caucus April 21. Photo Natalie Jacobsen

Dem discord

The chair of the Greene County Democrats, Elizabeth Alcorn, announced her resignation April 21 and cited violation of campaign rules by Cockburn staff, who were asked to stop campaigning at the Madison County caucus, where Alcorn was an official. One of them was black and Cockburn accused the Madison caucus officials of a “racist incident,” according to Alcorn’s resignation letter.

TMI

Some Western Albemarle parents were hot and bothered over Laci Green’s video.

After the Sexual Assault Resource Agency showed a video on male sexual pleasure to Western Albemarle High School students, upset parents complained, and the school axed its years-long relationship with the nonprofit. County schools spokesperson Phil Giaramita says the video wasn’t reviewed first, but SARA documented the approval of its sex ed curriculum by the head P.E. teacher.

Crying in his beer?

Chris Cantwell, aka the Crying Nazi, was arrested March 31 in Loudoun County for public intoxication. Cantwell was out on $25,000 bond for alleged use of tear gas at the August 11 tiki torch march through UVA. He’ll be back in Albemarle Circuit Court April 26 for a judge to reconsider his bond.

Coach convicted

Charlottesville High School track coach Melvin Carter was sentenced to 180 days of suspended jail time April 20 when he pleaded guilty to assault and battery of a juvenile. The incident did not take place on school ground, according to Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania.

Pilot identified

Kent D. Carr, 51, of Staunton was the pilot of the Cessna that crashed into Bucks Elbow Mountain in Crozet on April 15. Says his obituary, “He loved aviation and was flying home at the time.”

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News

This week in brief: Snuffing out tiki torches, ‘really dank bud’ and too cute puppies

Close up of a burning tiki torch on a blurred colored background.

Candles in, tiki torches out

Just ahead of Jason Kessler’s March 6 lawsuit against the city complaining that City Manager Maurice Jones unconstitutionally denied his permit for a two-day August 12 anniversary rally—Jones also denied five other applicants’ permit requests for the weekend—City Council updated its event permit regulations February 20.

  • 45-day notice if street closure requested, 30 days if not
  • Prohibited: Open flames, except for hand-held candles for ceremonial events
  • Prohibited (partial list): Pellet guns, air rifles, nunchucks, tasers, heavy gauge metal chains, poles, bricks, rocks, metal beverage or food cans or containers, glass bottles, axes, skateboards, swords, knives, metal pipes, pepper or bear spray, mace, bats, sticks, clubs, drones and explosives
  • Prohibited: Dressing like cops, military or emergency personnel
  • Small group exception: Up to 50 citizens may spontaneously demonstrate without a permit

Highlights from Kessler’s complaint:

  • The city couldn’t guarantee a clear path to enter Emancipation Park for his fellow Lee statue-loving protesters.
  • The permit denial is based on crowd size, but there’s plenty of room in the one-acre park, which could hold as many as 20,000 people “cheek to jowl.”
  • Because of the city’s “misconduct,” fewer people will attend and a “reduced crowd will dilute” Kessler’s message.
  • The city’s denial was based on Kessler’s viewpoint and violates his First and 14th Amendment rights.

 

Quote of the Week: “You’re more likely to be killed by @timkaine running mate @HillaryClinton than you are by an AR-15.” —A March 8 tweet by failed gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart, who stopped by Charlottesville March 10 during his campaign for Senate.

 

How much is that puppy in the browsing window?

Attorney General Mark Herring says his consumer protection team continues to receive complaints from people “who thought they were buying an incredibly cute puppy from an online breeder, only to find out it was a scam and the dog didn’t exist.” Red flags for this scam include stock photos, exotic or designer breeds for cheap, and poorly made websites that include misspellings and grammatical errors, he says.

Life and then some

Cathy Rothgeb

A jury recommended a 184-year sentence for Cathy S. Rothgeb, the former Orange County youth softball coach found guilty on March 12 on 30 of 34 charges, which include forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and object sexual penetration of two former athletes. The alleged molestations began in the ’90s, when one victim testified that she was 9 years old.

Assault and battery

A Western Albemarle High School teacher has been placed on administrative leave after he was arrested for a physical altercation with a student on February 16. Oluwole Adesina, a 53-year-old Crozet resident, faces up to a year in jail or a $2,500 fine for the misdemeanor assault and battery charge.

Green acres

Hogwaller Farm, a nine-acre development with 30 apartments and an urban farm, has been proposed near Moores Creek along Nassau Street, according to the Daily Progress, which reported March 11 that developer Justin Shimp submitted a zoning amendment pre-application last summer to ask Albemarle officials to change the light-industrial designation to rural so he could plant seven acres of “really dank bud.”

New hire

Roger Johnson. Courtesy of Albemarle County

Albemarle County announced its hiring of economic development director Roger Johnson from Greenville, North Carolina on March 7, for a job that’s been open for over a year. The last person to hold it lasted for 19 months.

Guilty plea

Joshua Lamar Carter, 27, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on March 12 for firing a gun at city police officers in 2016. In a plea agreement, he entered an Alford plea to one charge of attempted second-degree murder and pleaded guilty to shooting a gun in a public place and illegally possessing a firearm as a felon.

A headline we’re starting to get used to: Another August 12 lawsuit

Georgetown Law’s Civil Rights Clinic filed a federal defamation lawsuit March 13 on behalf of a Unite the Right rally counterprotester who claims to be a victim of fake news conspiracies.

Brennan Gilmore’s cell phone footage of the deadly car attack on Fourth Street went viral on August 12, and “Gilmore was contacted by media outlets to discuss his experience and soon became the target of elaborate online conspiracies that placed him at the center of a ‘deep-state’ plot to stage the attack and destabilize the Trump administration,” says a press release from the law group.

Now he’s suing defendants Alex Jones, Infowars, former Congressman Allen West and others for “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and “mobilizing an army of followers to pursue a campaign of harassment and threats against him.” The lawsuit seeks punitive damages and compensation for Gilmore’s alleged reputational injuries and emotional distress.

“From Sandy Hook to Pizzagate to Charlottesville, Las Vegas and now Parkland, the defendants thrive by inciting devastating real-world consequences with the propaganda and lies they publish as news,” says Gilmore. “Today, I’m asking a court to hold them responsible for the personal and professional damage their lies have caused me, and, more importantly, to deter them from repeating this dangerous pattern of defamation and intimidation.”

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News

High school beat: Newspaper editors share the real stories

Olivia Gallmeyer co-edits the Western Hemisphere. Photo Eze Amos

What’s it like to be a teenager in 2018? We figured nobody’s better plugged in than newspaper editors, so we checked in with the editors at Charlottesville High and Western Albemarle, as well as a CHS junior. Here’s what we learned about the differences between city and county schools—and what they have in common.

Olivia Gallmeyer

17-year-old senior at Western Albemarle High School

Co-editor of The Western Hemisphere

Biggest issues: “A lot of people are socially conscious. The statues were a big deal before August 12.” Student stress and academic pressure are “huge,” she says, and there’s parental pressure as well. Of the three Albemarle County high schools, half the students at Monticello and Albemarle take AP courses. At Western, “three-quarters do,” says Gallmeyer.

Characterize WAHS: High achieving. “I don’t think people care about what they’re learning. It’s get through this so I can go to college and begin my life.”

Also, “we are much whiter than the other schools.”

And sport heavy. WAHS is “fanatic,” says Gallmeyer. “It’s all about football in the fall.” And “Spirit Week is crazy here. You’re kind of ostracized if you don’t want to dress up.”

Coolest thing about Western: Lots of options. “We have a lot of support for independent study that people don’t know about,” says Gallmeyer, who has taken drama and worked on the newspaper for four years, and is taking statistics online. She’s also taking a women’s studies class, and she says there are lots of extracurricular activities, including a “super strong” robotics team.

Worst thing about your school: Although it’s improved a lot, Gallmeyer says Western has a huge culture of student stress, and mental health and substance abuse issues. “It’s considered the norm to be stressed, and students brag about, ‘I got four hours of sleep last night.’”

Risky behaviors: Vaping and JUULing. Alcohol use is common, and “weed is a problem also.” Not big: cigarettes and hard drugs.

August 12: Discussion in class began August 23. “To me it was hard to talk about,” she says. Teachers wanted to do it from an academic perspective.

Hangout: Brownsville Market for the potato wedges.

What adults get wrong: “A lot try to lump our age group with millennials.” They also assume teenagers know more about technology than they do. “If a teacher doesn’t know how to run a projector, we don’t know how to run the projector.” Also, “some of us like to read books.”

Obsolete in your lifetime? DVDs, CDs and watching a physical TV. “We do a lot more streaming.”

Describe your generation: “I think what’s going to be huge is coming of age after the 2016 election in such a polarized time.” Some kids have been out since they were 12 or 13. “Feminism and LGBT activism at our age is common.”

Fré Halvorson-Taylor

17-year-old senior at Charlottesville High School

Co-editor of The Knight-Time Review

Photo Eze Amos

Biggest issues: Little diversity in the upper-level classes. After talking to the city schools’ superintendent, Halvorson-Taylor is wondering what social and economic barriers are keeping black students out of AP and honor classes. “Black students are asked, ‘Are you sure you’ll feel comfortable?’ I wasn’t asked that.”

Coolest thing about CHS: “I love its diversity. Every student I come into contact with is passionate about something.” And teachers are their partners in crime, she says. “We aren’t just apathetic, slacking off teenagers. We have our interests. That’s what keeps me going.”

Worst thing about the school: The systemic issues, about which more communication and transparency would be “awesome.”

Hangout: Cook Out, where all high schools convene.

Risky behaviors: “There’s a lot of vaping.” And social media provides a platform for sexist and racist posts, which because they aren’t posted on school grounds, the administration can’t do anything. “That’s the most elusive beast we have,” says Halvorson-Taylor.

Describe your generation: “I’m still pretty hopeful. Local activism is getting younger. I still think we’re going to be the ones to address issues. We grew up with the message of hope in 2008 and 2012. Trump is pretty scary for us. And this wave of bigotry is something we have to actively address.”

What do adults get wrong? Many see technology as an evil that keeps them from seeing the good it does, she says. “I see Facebook as a way to get involved,” and a tool with a lot of potential. “It really is a revolution.”

Message to adults: “Listen to us. Engage us in conversation. Talk to us. We each have our unique voice.”

Cole Fairchild

17 year-old junior at CHS

Cole Fairchild
Photo Eze Amos

Biggest issues: Mainly educational—“Kids struggling with am I going to graduate? Am I going to college? Am I going to have a B?” And segregation. The school is 50 percent black, but in Fairchild’s five AP classes, usually there are only three or four black students. “That’s not unique to Charlottesville,” he says. “Segregation socially comes from academics because you hang out with the same kids you’ve been in classes with since the sixth grade.”

Rivals: Albemarle High, Western Albemarle, but mostly AHS. “We’ve always hated them because they’re the school next to us and we’re always playing them.”

Coolest thing about CHS: Probably the community. “Even though it’s segregated, the students and teachers are really committed to each other,”

Worst: “The lunches are not long enough.”

What do adults get wrong? “We’re not millennials. There’s probably some misperception about young people in this generation not being connected as much, not involved as much. That’s an old-fashioned view. People can communicate and get information in a fraction of a second.”

Risky behaviors: People still get a thrill out of drinking, drugs, and pot is the most popular, he says. “I don’t know anyone who has smoked a cigarette.” Kids are juuling, but it’s not as bad as cigarettes.

Stress: Despite taking five AP classes, Fairchild says, “Personally I think I deal with stress better than a lot of my peers.” Nor is he as worried about college as some. “I’m going to college but I can’t tell you which. Some are really stressed out about that.” CHS offers around 23 AP classes and doesn’t have a limit on the number a student can take. Fairchild thinks taking seven is too many and it should be limited.

Hangout: Cook Out

Biggest difference from older generations: Reading books. “My parents read a lot more.”

Some environmental things will be different, with whole cities underwater in 50 years, he says, and some issues will be the same: war, political issues, social justice causes.

 

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News

Former Western Albemarle admin accused of molestation

Western Albemarle High’s Blue Ridge views won’t be too impacted by an 80-foot cell tower, but some are more worried about health risks than the aesthetics. (File Photo)

A former Western Albemarle High School associate principal, teacher and coach denies he molested a 12-year-old student in Louisiana in the early 1980s.

The New Orleans Advocate reports his accuser told a New Orleans detective in early 2016 that, while attending Isidore Newman School, she had a crush on teacher Greg Domecq, who allegedly kissed her in a classroom on one occasion and rubbed her thigh on another. And during winter break of 1982, the teacher invited her to the Pontchartrain Beach amusement park, but took her to a “cheap motel” instead, she told investigators.

There, Domecq allegedly digitally penetrated the 12-year-old and masturbated in front of her, according to an April 2016 search warrant.

Domecq, 59, has not been charged for the alleged sexual abuse, and the district attorney said by the time his office was informed of the alleged crime last year, the statute of limitations had lapsed, according to the Advocate.

Now retired, Domecq denied the accusations in an email. He also shared with C-VILLE a message he sent to family and friends after the story broke in the New Orleans Advocate on July 5, and a subsequent article appeared in the Daily Progress.

“I am weary from the attacks I have endured for the past several years from a core group of individuals in both the Charlottesville and New Orleans area who have sought to make my life and the lives of members of my family miserable,” it reads. “The accusations in the Daily Progress/New Orleans Advocate article are both vulgar and false. As I have been taught by my religion, I have forgiven those individuals and I am trying to move on with my life, and I hope that one day they may also put this hatred behind them.”

In his note, he mentions the hundreds of notes and letters from parents, students and teachers that thank him for making a positive difference in their lives during his 35 years in education. Domecq shared some of them with C-VILLE.

He also wrote he’s been happily married to Julie Campbell Domecq for 26 years. Campbell was a senior at St. Martin’s Episcopal School in Metairie, Louisiana, when Domecq coached basketball there in 1988. “We did get together and eventually married in August of 1991. You can imagine the rumors and the feeding frenzy that caused,” he says.

And he made headlines again in 2012 when his daughter, Christine Domecq, a Western Albemarle soccer player, was allegedly bitten during a match against Western’s rival, Fluvanna County High School. Convicted biter Kat Ditta was charged with misdemeanor assault, but the Domecq family eventually decided to drop the charge.

Regarding the molestation allegation, Domecq’s alleged sexual abuse victim also provided contact information for another student the teacher had “exhibited inappropriate behavior towards,” according to a search warrant obtained by the Advocate. She also told police she didn’t tell anyone what happened until about seven years later, when she told her mother, and that she is now ready to come forward after “much therapy.”

A detective interviewed Domecq’s colleagues at Newman who worked with him from 1982 to 1985, and one of them said he “exhibited inappropriate attention to female students.”

But in a 1986 recommendation letter for a job at the Holy Cross School, Newman’s then assistant principal Ed Graf wrote, “He was a most responsible and effective teacher and would certainly be an asset to any school.”

Says Domecq, “I have come to the conclusion that those individuals who will believe the negative attacks will believe them no matter what. The people who know me and my family know who we are and what we have been through.”

Updated July 19 at 1:50pm.